Changed the title of the thread and will add my reviews this weekend.
First here is my impression of the PPH. It seems to be the least talked about hotel and I guess its because its the least expensive (notice I didn't say cheapest). We were scheduled to arrive on Monday and check in time is 3:00 I believe. We left Sac at just before 2:00 am and arrived at about 8:15 am or so at the PPH. I let DW and DD out at the front entrance with the bags and went to park in the parking garage right in back. My only complaint about the parking garage is no elevators, but I knew that going in from reading the reviews so it wasn't unexpected which is why I knew to drop the bags off before parking. We had booked a standard view room but I made sure to have WDTC put a note that we were celebrating our 6th Wedding anniversary and two birthdays (both DW and myself have B-days 3 days apart mid May so we didn't do anything for our birthdays so we could spend the money on the trip, and same with our Anniversary which is early June). The CM who helped us was very nice and gave us plenty of tips (including how to get the elevators faster which I will get to later). But check in took quite a while as we were chit chatting with the CM quite a bit as well. She didn't immediately offer a room upgrade so I made sure to ask how much it would cost to upgrade to a park view room. She told me she would check and see if they had any available. She went in back and a few minutes later came back and went back to checking us in without saying anything so I asked again about the price for the park view room and she said that they were giving us a complimentary upgrade. She gave us the room keys and all the info they give you at check in but the room wasn't ready so they would text us when the room was ready, or call if they found a different room earlier. So we got our stuff together and headed to the parks with our bags checked at the hotel. It was about 1:30 or so when they called and left a message on my cell that they found another room and we could come by any time and exchange our room keys for the new ones. We had AG reservations at 2:10 so we decided to wait till after lunch to go back.
Ok so we get to the hotel, change our room keys and get our room number 1302. I am used to staying at motels that are 2 or 3 stories tall but I thought taller buildings always skipped the 13th floor. Dont they usually go from 12 to 14? Anyway no big deal as none of us are superstitious like that. We have our weird quirks but the number 13 doesnt bother us at all. The room is at the end of the hall so its not next to the elevator but its also not too far, good location IMO. The room was clean with 2 queen size beds, small sofa that pulls out to a bed (didnt try that), small fridge, safe, TV etc. No microwave if you were wondering. Room wasn't big but there was plenty of space for the 3 of us. We never felt cramped. I will tell you now we thought the beds were really comfortable. Soft and cushy which is what we like so we slept like baby all 4 nights.
But the big thing (and this really did make it more magical) was the view. Our room was over looking the paradise pier area with a great view of WOC, Screamin, GZ, Mickeys FW, etc. We could also see the cars land mountains behind everything (I will post pics later when I get them organized, CL looks very cool at night). We could not see DL well as we were on the wrong side of the PPH for that but could see the top of space if we put our face against the window.
DW liked the coffee maker and used it each morning (which means it must be easy to use because she is terrible with electronics). The water pressure in the shower was not great. Ive stayed at places with much worse pressure but I would have liked more when taking a shower. But it was adequate and got the job done so no complaints there. The rooms are quiet and we never heard talking from anyone in the rooms next to us. We could hear people in the hall way but the only noise we heard coming from inside other rooms were the toilets flushing and that was only in the middle of the night with everything off and I was in our bathroom. We could hear the fireworks but it wasn't real loud in our room, same with WOC.
Now about the elevators. I read some complaints in online reviews about how long it takes to get an elevator going down. Well the wonderful CM who checked us in made sure to tell us about this as well and said the secret is to push the up button instead of the down button. And after 4 nights there I can confirm that is the way to go. Push the down button and you might wait a long time for it to get there (especially on the higher floors), or if you are not as high in the hotel you may find all the elevators full by the time they get to you if you are trying to get to the parks at the same time as everyone else. But push the up button and you get the elevator much faster and usually no one is on it. You have to go up one floor before going down but it was definitely much faster and I never waited more than a couple minutes for an elevator.
Now the walk to DL and DCA. The resort guest entrance to DCA from the GCH is absolutely amazing for its convenience. Even staying at the PPH I cant tell you how awesome that entrance is. You go right in next to GRR and miss the crowds coming in along the construction area with all the walls and such. And if you go to DL through the GCH its much quicker than the route they tell you at the front gate which takes you through DDT. The GCH shortcut puts you in DTD but much closer to the security gates. We went through DTD on the way back to the PPH one night and it was close to 10 minutes longer going that way then cutting through the GCH. And its an easy route to figure out with signs pointing you in the right direction.
We only had one issue in the hotel and it was with other guests. There were two women on our floor who decided they didn't want to go down stairs to smoke cigarette's, so they used the emergency stairs right next to our room and that made the hall way smell like cigarette smoke. We complained at the front desk as we were leaving the first time we saw them and they told us they would send someone up there immediately. Then I saw one of the women again the next day I think it was and she looked at me while sitting on the floor talking on the phone and smoking her cigarette so I pointed at the non smoking sign posted on the door right next to her head and then went down stairs and told the front desk again. I saw that same women yesterday in the morning as we were passing each other and she ignored me so I did the same. But other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the PPH and would LOVE to stay there again. I'm not sure I could get my wife to stay at an offsite hotel anymore after this trip.
Here is our experience with BBB
Originally we had planned on doing the middle package for DD and buying a dress and acesseries at the disney store before our trip but it didnt work out because the Disney stores near us did not have any dresses we liked or that fit DD. I ended up calling about a week before our trip and asking if we could change to the castle package. They said that we could do that but that would change our appointment from 11 to 11:10. No issues there at all so I did that. And if we had been able to find a dress we could change back to our original package at the time of our apointment but we wouldnt have been able to show up and say we wanted the castle package without reserving it first. We arrived at BBB about 30 min early and they said we could look around but they wont get to us until our scheduled time. So DD decided on her dress (cinderella) and then we went and did the castle walk through and looked around FL for a few minutes. About 10 minutes before our appointment we went back to BBB and the FGMIT was calling out "Princess Katie" and had been looking for us for a couple minutes so they did get to us a little early which is always good when your ready. The FGMIT was very nice and very attentive to my DD. Her name was Sandra. First she helped DD pick out her acceseries (DD chose the purse and Gloves and the magic wand that lights up) and then she said the mice had to make her dress so it would be a few minutes. So we looked around the store some more until the mice had finished Cinderellas dress. Then Sandra led us back to the changing room where the dress and accesseries were all laid out nice and neet. DD was soo excited and couldnt wait to put her dress on. DW and I helped her get dressed and then we let Sandra know we were ready. Sandra led us to the chair where they do the hair and makeup. DD got to choose her style of hair and she chose Fairytale Princess. Here is my one complaint about the BBB process. There are 3 choices for hair. Fairytale Princess which means the hair is up in a tight bun, Disney Diva which wasnt too bad but not ideal (hard for me to explain), or Pop princess which includes coloring or extensions or both but looked terrible to me. I would MUCH prefer they do the Princess hair styles like the original princess. If you are going to be Cinderella then make her hair look like Cinderellas. I can see mix matching the hair styles between princesses but make the original princess hair stlyes available. Thats my rant and only real complaint (cant complaint too much about the price as I knew what I was getting into before hand). Ok so Sandra got started on the hair as Dw and I sat on a bench right behind them and watched (and video taped it). Part way through another FGMIT came and did DDs makeup and nails. DD was great throughout the whole thing. She wont let us brush her hair most times but does great when we take her for haircuts and such and this was no different. She screams bloody murder if we even approach her with a brush but Sandra could pull and tug on her hair as much as she wanted and DD never said a word or cried at all. It is amazing the amount of "product" they put in her hair to make it hold. And they use so much Glitter "Pixie Dust" that I swear we left a trail throughout the parks and I am sure housekeeping at the PPH hated us because of all the glitter left on the furniture and such. The good news is my wife says the products must be pretty good because they washed out very easily a couple days later when we gave DD a bath. It took about 20-30 minutes I am guessing as I didnt look at my watch and then it was finally time to do the big reveal. They have "magic mirrors" covered with curtains and a couple of little birdies that pull the curtain open after DD said the magic words. The Mirror has some lights that twinkle as the curtain pulls open and DD gets to see herself for the first time as a Princess. The look on her face is priceless and she is soo excited. Next step is we pay while waiting for the photo op which comes with the big package. They have a room with Cinderellas carriage and some forest animals and stuff like that that they took us to for our pics. They did several poses with various props and they allowed us to take pics as well which is great. Once that was over we were done and it took about 10 minutes for our pictures to be done. They gave us a pink folder with one of her pictures in it and the original Cinderella FGM on the inside cover waving her wand. They also gave us copies of some of the other pictures they took. All in all it was a good experience and DD was so thrilled. She didnt take the dress off, or touch her hair for two days. And then we had to forcefully remove her clothes to give her a bath because she was so dirty after 2 full days in the parks. This is a great once in a lifetime treat but DD wont be getting that again anytime soon. Pics will be coming soon of this as well.
Here is my original post from Thursday We have been in the land of the mouse since Monday and have had a great time. But we had a hiccup this morning so we decided to extend one more day before leaving for home tomorrow in the evening.
We are staying at PPH and we bought 4 day park hoppers which we first used on Monday. So we got up this morning to EE and were in the first 10 people in line at the gates after security. Then they open the gates and our tickets come up with no time left on them. Today is our 4th day of 4 day park hoppers. The CM makes a half hearted effort to get her sup over but never actually gets anyone's attention instead has us stand out of the way and starts letting everyone else go by. I could see the sup over by the exits but the CM wouldn't give me the tickets back to walk over and talk to the sup. About 10-15 minutes we stand there waiting. I complained again that we were missing our MM and she finally got the sups attention. He takes our tickets and goes to another terminal and 5-10 min later comes back to tell us that there was a glitch in the system earlier this week that charged us for 2 visits in one day when we were park hopping and that made our ticket come up used up after only 3 days. So we finally get into the park and we have maybe 25 minutes of MM left. DD had a melt down as we entered after all that waiting so we had to sit down near the flag pole and de-escalate that situation. Finally we went to Fantasy land and PP line started near BBB, DD didn't want to ride dumbo, and Alice wasn't running yet because I guess a CM was running late or something. We were very frustrated so we went to tomorrow land and DW went to ride space while I took DD on astro blasters. After AB I took DD toward space and a huge crowd of people is walking out of space but not from the normal exit. Finally DW comes out and says that they were in line and moving and then without any CM saying anything to the people in like they led the people out an exit and sent them on their way. Turns out it was having some kind of issue and they didn't know how long it would be. We were very frustrated and our plan of action had been completely blown up. We were determined to calm down and have a good time and we have salvaged our day fairly well with FP collecting and strategic park movement.
We got hungry about 11:00 and wanted to try PI fried chicken I have read about on here quite a bit but they don't start lunch till noon so we decided to go to city hall and vent a little as well as see about adding one more say to our park hopper so that we weren't leaving on this sour note. Took a while and they had to have us go to guest services outside the park but we did get that extra day added as well as a special FP good on any ride except star tours (FP ride or not, she said we could use it on PP even ).
Now we did have some highlights today after all the issues this morning. DD has been scared to ride anything fast until today. She went on GGC for her first roller coaster and liked it so we were able to talk her into trying BTMRR a little later and she liked that as well (smiles through most of it and had her hands up for the first half of the ride). Then we finished with Splash (used our special FP because the line was 75 min or something like that.
We decided to take a break after that and DD fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the hotel and is still napping. We will head back after she wakes up. So I decided to get on my phone and vent a little while we rest in our room.
Tomorrow we will hit rope drop and ride our favs as well as do a little shopping and then head home. We are determined to make tomorrow a great day so we can end on a high note and not let this mornings issues be the thing we remember most on what has been an otherwise outstanding trip for us. I will post some updates and hopefully some pics of our trip this weekend or next week when we are home. I want to give my opinions on the PPH and on AG as well as some grad night observations for those of you who are going in June.
First here is my impression of the PPH. It seems to be the least talked about hotel and I guess its because its the least expensive (notice I didn't say cheapest). We were scheduled to arrive on Monday and check in time is 3:00 I believe. We left Sac at just before 2:00 am and arrived at about 8:15 am or so at the PPH. I let DW and DD out at the front entrance with the bags and went to park in the parking garage right in back. My only complaint about the parking garage is no elevators, but I knew that going in from reading the reviews so it wasn't unexpected which is why I knew to drop the bags off before parking. We had booked a standard view room but I made sure to have WDTC put a note that we were celebrating our 6th Wedding anniversary and two birthdays (both DW and myself have B-days 3 days apart mid May so we didn't do anything for our birthdays so we could spend the money on the trip, and same with our Anniversary which is early June). The CM who helped us was very nice and gave us plenty of tips (including how to get the elevators faster which I will get to later). But check in took quite a while as we were chit chatting with the CM quite a bit as well. She didn't immediately offer a room upgrade so I made sure to ask how much it would cost to upgrade to a park view room. She told me she would check and see if they had any available. She went in back and a few minutes later came back and went back to checking us in without saying anything so I asked again about the price for the park view room and she said that they were giving us a complimentary upgrade. She gave us the room keys and all the info they give you at check in but the room wasn't ready so they would text us when the room was ready, or call if they found a different room earlier. So we got our stuff together and headed to the parks with our bags checked at the hotel. It was about 1:30 or so when they called and left a message on my cell that they found another room and we could come by any time and exchange our room keys for the new ones. We had AG reservations at 2:10 so we decided to wait till after lunch to go back.
Ok so we get to the hotel, change our room keys and get our room number 1302. I am used to staying at motels that are 2 or 3 stories tall but I thought taller buildings always skipped the 13th floor. Dont they usually go from 12 to 14? Anyway no big deal as none of us are superstitious like that. We have our weird quirks but the number 13 doesnt bother us at all. The room is at the end of the hall so its not next to the elevator but its also not too far, good location IMO. The room was clean with 2 queen size beds, small sofa that pulls out to a bed (didnt try that), small fridge, safe, TV etc. No microwave if you were wondering. Room wasn't big but there was plenty of space for the 3 of us. We never felt cramped. I will tell you now we thought the beds were really comfortable. Soft and cushy which is what we like so we slept like baby all 4 nights.
But the big thing (and this really did make it more magical) was the view. Our room was over looking the paradise pier area with a great view of WOC, Screamin, GZ, Mickeys FW, etc. We could also see the cars land mountains behind everything (I will post pics later when I get them organized, CL looks very cool at night). We could not see DL well as we were on the wrong side of the PPH for that but could see the top of space if we put our face against the window.
DW liked the coffee maker and used it each morning (which means it must be easy to use because she is terrible with electronics). The water pressure in the shower was not great. Ive stayed at places with much worse pressure but I would have liked more when taking a shower. But it was adequate and got the job done so no complaints there. The rooms are quiet and we never heard talking from anyone in the rooms next to us. We could hear people in the hall way but the only noise we heard coming from inside other rooms were the toilets flushing and that was only in the middle of the night with everything off and I was in our bathroom. We could hear the fireworks but it wasn't real loud in our room, same with WOC.
Now about the elevators. I read some complaints in online reviews about how long it takes to get an elevator going down. Well the wonderful CM who checked us in made sure to tell us about this as well and said the secret is to push the up button instead of the down button. And after 4 nights there I can confirm that is the way to go. Push the down button and you might wait a long time for it to get there (especially on the higher floors), or if you are not as high in the hotel you may find all the elevators full by the time they get to you if you are trying to get to the parks at the same time as everyone else. But push the up button and you get the elevator much faster and usually no one is on it. You have to go up one floor before going down but it was definitely much faster and I never waited more than a couple minutes for an elevator.
Now the walk to DL and DCA. The resort guest entrance to DCA from the GCH is absolutely amazing for its convenience. Even staying at the PPH I cant tell you how awesome that entrance is. You go right in next to GRR and miss the crowds coming in along the construction area with all the walls and such. And if you go to DL through the GCH its much quicker than the route they tell you at the front gate which takes you through DDT. The GCH shortcut puts you in DTD but much closer to the security gates. We went through DTD on the way back to the PPH one night and it was close to 10 minutes longer going that way then cutting through the GCH. And its an easy route to figure out with signs pointing you in the right direction.
We only had one issue in the hotel and it was with other guests. There were two women on our floor who decided they didn't want to go down stairs to smoke cigarette's, so they used the emergency stairs right next to our room and that made the hall way smell like cigarette smoke. We complained at the front desk as we were leaving the first time we saw them and they told us they would send someone up there immediately. Then I saw one of the women again the next day I think it was and she looked at me while sitting on the floor talking on the phone and smoking her cigarette so I pointed at the non smoking sign posted on the door right next to her head and then went down stairs and told the front desk again. I saw that same women yesterday in the morning as we were passing each other and she ignored me so I did the same. But other than that I thoroughly enjoyed the PPH and would LOVE to stay there again. I'm not sure I could get my wife to stay at an offsite hotel anymore after this trip.
Here is our experience with BBB
Originally we had planned on doing the middle package for DD and buying a dress and acesseries at the disney store before our trip but it didnt work out because the Disney stores near us did not have any dresses we liked or that fit DD. I ended up calling about a week before our trip and asking if we could change to the castle package. They said that we could do that but that would change our appointment from 11 to 11:10. No issues there at all so I did that. And if we had been able to find a dress we could change back to our original package at the time of our apointment but we wouldnt have been able to show up and say we wanted the castle package without reserving it first. We arrived at BBB about 30 min early and they said we could look around but they wont get to us until our scheduled time. So DD decided on her dress (cinderella) and then we went and did the castle walk through and looked around FL for a few minutes. About 10 minutes before our appointment we went back to BBB and the FGMIT was calling out "Princess Katie" and had been looking for us for a couple minutes so they did get to us a little early which is always good when your ready. The FGMIT was very nice and very attentive to my DD. Her name was Sandra. First she helped DD pick out her acceseries (DD chose the purse and Gloves and the magic wand that lights up) and then she said the mice had to make her dress so it would be a few minutes. So we looked around the store some more until the mice had finished Cinderellas dress. Then Sandra led us back to the changing room where the dress and accesseries were all laid out nice and neet. DD was soo excited and couldnt wait to put her dress on. DW and I helped her get dressed and then we let Sandra know we were ready. Sandra led us to the chair where they do the hair and makeup. DD got to choose her style of hair and she chose Fairytale Princess. Here is my one complaint about the BBB process. There are 3 choices for hair. Fairytale Princess which means the hair is up in a tight bun, Disney Diva which wasnt too bad but not ideal (hard for me to explain), or Pop princess which includes coloring or extensions or both but looked terrible to me. I would MUCH prefer they do the Princess hair styles like the original princess. If you are going to be Cinderella then make her hair look like Cinderellas. I can see mix matching the hair styles between princesses but make the original princess hair stlyes available. Thats my rant and only real complaint (cant complaint too much about the price as I knew what I was getting into before hand). Ok so Sandra got started on the hair as Dw and I sat on a bench right behind them and watched (and video taped it). Part way through another FGMIT came and did DDs makeup and nails. DD was great throughout the whole thing. She wont let us brush her hair most times but does great when we take her for haircuts and such and this was no different. She screams bloody murder if we even approach her with a brush but Sandra could pull and tug on her hair as much as she wanted and DD never said a word or cried at all. It is amazing the amount of "product" they put in her hair to make it hold. And they use so much Glitter "Pixie Dust" that I swear we left a trail throughout the parks and I am sure housekeeping at the PPH hated us because of all the glitter left on the furniture and such. The good news is my wife says the products must be pretty good because they washed out very easily a couple days later when we gave DD a bath. It took about 20-30 minutes I am guessing as I didnt look at my watch and then it was finally time to do the big reveal. They have "magic mirrors" covered with curtains and a couple of little birdies that pull the curtain open after DD said the magic words. The Mirror has some lights that twinkle as the curtain pulls open and DD gets to see herself for the first time as a Princess. The look on her face is priceless and she is soo excited. Next step is we pay while waiting for the photo op which comes with the big package. They have a room with Cinderellas carriage and some forest animals and stuff like that that they took us to for our pics. They did several poses with various props and they allowed us to take pics as well which is great. Once that was over we were done and it took about 10 minutes for our pictures to be done. They gave us a pink folder with one of her pictures in it and the original Cinderella FGM on the inside cover waving her wand. They also gave us copies of some of the other pictures they took. All in all it was a good experience and DD was so thrilled. She didnt take the dress off, or touch her hair for two days. And then we had to forcefully remove her clothes to give her a bath because she was so dirty after 2 full days in the parks. This is a great once in a lifetime treat but DD wont be getting that again anytime soon. Pics will be coming soon of this as well.
Here is my original post from Thursday We have been in the land of the mouse since Monday and have had a great time. But we had a hiccup this morning so we decided to extend one more day before leaving for home tomorrow in the evening.
We are staying at PPH and we bought 4 day park hoppers which we first used on Monday. So we got up this morning to EE and were in the first 10 people in line at the gates after security. Then they open the gates and our tickets come up with no time left on them. Today is our 4th day of 4 day park hoppers. The CM makes a half hearted effort to get her sup over but never actually gets anyone's attention instead has us stand out of the way and starts letting everyone else go by. I could see the sup over by the exits but the CM wouldn't give me the tickets back to walk over and talk to the sup. About 10-15 minutes we stand there waiting. I complained again that we were missing our MM and she finally got the sups attention. He takes our tickets and goes to another terminal and 5-10 min later comes back to tell us that there was a glitch in the system earlier this week that charged us for 2 visits in one day when we were park hopping and that made our ticket come up used up after only 3 days. So we finally get into the park and we have maybe 25 minutes of MM left. DD had a melt down as we entered after all that waiting so we had to sit down near the flag pole and de-escalate that situation. Finally we went to Fantasy land and PP line started near BBB, DD didn't want to ride dumbo, and Alice wasn't running yet because I guess a CM was running late or something. We were very frustrated so we went to tomorrow land and DW went to ride space while I took DD on astro blasters. After AB I took DD toward space and a huge crowd of people is walking out of space but not from the normal exit. Finally DW comes out and says that they were in line and moving and then without any CM saying anything to the people in like they led the people out an exit and sent them on their way. Turns out it was having some kind of issue and they didn't know how long it would be. We were very frustrated and our plan of action had been completely blown up. We were determined to calm down and have a good time and we have salvaged our day fairly well with FP collecting and strategic park movement.
We got hungry about 11:00 and wanted to try PI fried chicken I have read about on here quite a bit but they don't start lunch till noon so we decided to go to city hall and vent a little as well as see about adding one more say to our park hopper so that we weren't leaving on this sour note. Took a while and they had to have us go to guest services outside the park but we did get that extra day added as well as a special FP good on any ride except star tours (FP ride or not, she said we could use it on PP even ).
Now we did have some highlights today after all the issues this morning. DD has been scared to ride anything fast until today. She went on GGC for her first roller coaster and liked it so we were able to talk her into trying BTMRR a little later and she liked that as well (smiles through most of it and had her hands up for the first half of the ride). Then we finished with Splash (used our special FP because the line was 75 min or something like that.
We decided to take a break after that and DD fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the hotel and is still napping. We will head back after she wakes up. So I decided to get on my phone and vent a little while we rest in our room.
Tomorrow we will hit rope drop and ride our favs as well as do a little shopping and then head home. We are determined to make tomorrow a great day so we can end on a high note and not let this mornings issues be the thing we remember most on what has been an otherwise outstanding trip for us. I will post some updates and hopefully some pics of our trip this weekend or next week when we are home. I want to give my opinions on the PPH and on AG as well as some grad night observations for those of you who are going in June.
I've also stayed off site 5 times, but if the PPH is within $60-80 of offsite, i normally go with the PPH.
